An artist, a teacher and a group of GPs were praised by David Cameron as
examples of the “can-do” spirit that makes Britain great.

The moment Tania Sidney-Roberts heard on the radio about an invitation to people to open a new kind of school she knew it was what she had been waiting for.

As a teacher and a working mother, she came up with a proposal for a school with shorter but more frequent holidays, affordable but high-quality childcare from 8am until almost 6pm and small classes.

Not long after submitting her proposal she was chosen to be one of the pioneers of the free school movement, and within a year Norwich Free School had opened its doors with its first intake of 96 pupils and was already four times oversubscribed.

Mrs Sidney-Roberts said last night: “It has gone tremendously smoothly and it has not been difficult – I keep telling people this and they laugh it off but it is perfectly do-able.”

Dan Thompson

When a 37-year-old community activist from Worthing, West Sussex, sent out a message on Twitter as he watched riots devastate parts of London, he could not have imaged the huge response he would receive.

Within 24 hours Dan Thompson’s simple idea of urging people to pick up a broom and help clean up the damage had attracted 70,000 supporters.

Hundreds turned out on the streets of London to join in, and the idea soon spread to Manchester, Liverpool and other cities and images of the British response to the riots were beamed around the world.

Mr Thompson said: “It has been an emotional couple of months. I had a very simple idea, it has been amazing to see how far that idea has spread and how many people have got involved.”

Bexley Medical Group

A pioneering GP practice takes patients from a poor area of south-east London for scans at a leading Harley Street clinic, but manages to save the NHS money.

Rather than sending any patients with suspected heart problems straight to hospital for costly and possibly unnecessary tests, Bexley Medical Group brings in a consultant cardiologist to give patients longer consultations in surgeries.

Those who do need to have tests are taken by minibus to the European Scanning Centre in Harley Street, London’s home of private medicine, for a CT scan that costs less than it would on the NHS.